To twist those phone conductors easily and with almost machine like uniformity, grab your drill, anchor one end of the wires to something solid and put the other end in the drill chuck. I double the drill end of the wires over and/or put some tape around them to give the chuck something to hold on to. Pull the wires tight with 5 or 10 pounds of tension and twist away. Do as long a section as your work shop allows and roll up what you don't need for your next project.

Any of the Spektrum/JR satelite based receivers should be fine. Getting the two receivers as far apart as is practical would be best as this will enhance diversity, but I would not be overly concerned. If I was using a Futaba FASST receiver I would simple spread the antenna and not be concerned. Spektrum/JR are the only ones who do this remove receiver thing. So the normal spread between receiver and remote is more than adequate.

... the normal spread between receiver and remote is more than adequate.

That may be so, but mounting the satellite receiver in the fin offers the additional advantages that:

The antennas are vertical and therefore work well in conjunction with the forward antennas, which usually have to be horizontal, either left-to-right or front-to-back, to fit. Vertical orientation results in a horizontally omnidirectional antenna pattern when the sailplane is flying normally. The only nulls for the receiver in the fin are straight up and straight down, and those directions are covered by the main receiver in the nose.

The antennas are far away from most of the rest of the plane and away from components like the battery and servos that might block line-of-sight communication.

At least in a cross-tail Shadow or Xplorer, there's no carbon fiber in the upper 2/3 of the fin, as you can see in the picture I posted above where I held my fuselage in front of a bright light, so carbon is not a problem.

You can get a set of 2 that have a 60 and 90cm for under $2. But I warn you it's from that nasty Orange company someone here doesn't like... It's gets a satellite to the top f my vert stab in my 3.5 and 3.7 ships which both use Orange 9ch receivers with 2 satellites each. Great reception.

Interesting. I have a supply of ribbon cable. I'll strip three conductors and extend the remote. I like Mike's explanation and he's never steered me wrong. I'll use a logger I have installed in another plane to check out the operation. Should give me the confidence I'm looking for... (I hope.)

You can get a set of 2 that have a 60 and 90cm for under $2. But I warn you it's from that nasty Orange company someone here doesn't like... It's gets a satellite to the top f my vert stab in my 3.5 and 3.7 ships which both use Orange 9ch receivers with 2 satellites each. Great reception.

I'll use a logger I have installed in another plane to check out the operation. Should give me the confidence I'm looking for... (I hope.)

Thanks Guys!
Rick

I never "mount" a data logger in my plane... Just get a handful of servo extensions in the lightest wire gauge you can find, and just plug one in to the data port....
When you do your ground or after flight checks, just don't shut down your RX or TX power, and plug in your "hand held data logger" to the extension, and you have the info....

Two data loggeres are nice to have, one as a back up.
I even washed one of mine in the pocket of my shorts, and it STILL works after that!
The plane wouldn't fit in the washer, so you can see why I don't mount the data logger permanently in the fuse, right? Kidding.
You can use the data loggers loose is my point, and they are handy, but it's easy to misplace them, so be careful.